LIGNUM GUAIACL 101 



obliquely obovate or oblong, passing into rhomboid-ovate, and mucronu- 

 late ; and a 5-celled fruit. It is found in Southern Florida, the Bahama 

 Islands, Key West, Cuba, St. Domingo (including the part called Hayti) 

 and Puerto Rico, and is certainly the source of the small but excellent 

 Lignum Vitas exported from the Bahamas as well as of some of that 

 shipped from Hayti. 



History — There can be no doubt but that the earliest importations 

 of Lifjnum Vitse were obtained from St. Domingo, of which island, 

 Oviedo^ who landed in America in 1514 mentions the tree, under the 

 name of Guayacan, as a native. He points out its fruits as yellow and 

 resembling two joined lupines, which could only be said with reference 

 to G. ojficinale, and would not apply to the ovoid five-coniered fruits of 

 G. sanctuvi. Oviedo appears however to have been aware of two species, 

 one of which he found in Espanola (St. Domingo) as well as in Nagi'ando 

 (Nicaragua) and the other in the island of St. John (Puerto Rico), 

 whence it was called Lignum sanctuini. 



The first edition of Oviedo was printed in 1526 ; but some years 

 before this the wood must have been known in Germany, as is evident 

 by the treatises written in 1517, 1518, and 1519 by Nicolaus Poll,'^ 

 Leonard Schmaus^ and Ulrich von Hutten.^ The last which gives a 

 tolerable description of the tree, its wood, bark, and medicinal pro- 

 perties, was translated into English in 1533 by Thomas Paynel, canon 

 of ^lerton Abbey, and published in London in 1536 under the title — 

 " Of the luood called Guaiacum that healeth the Frenche Pockes omd 

 also helpeth the gout in the feete, the stoone, the palsey, lepree, dropsy, 

 fallynge euyll, and other dyseases." It was several times reprinted. 



In the old pharmacy the products of destructive distillation of 

 guaiacum wood were known as Oleum ligni sancti. It must have 

 consisted of the substances which we mention further on in the following 

 article. 



Description — The wood (alwaj's known in commerce as Lignum 

 Vitce) as imported consists of pieces of the stem and thick branches, 

 usually stripped of bark, and often weighing a hundredweight each. 

 It is remarkably heavy and compact. Its sp. gr. which exceeds that of 

 most woods is about 1'3. 



Lignum Vit?e is mostly imported for turnery,' and the chips, raspings 

 and shavings are the only form in which it is commonly seen in phar- 

 macy. A stem 7 to 8 inches in diameter cut transversely exhibits a 

 light-yellowish zone of sapwood about an inch wide, enclosing a sharply 

 defined heartwood of a dark greenish brown. Both display alternate 

 lighter and darker layers, which especially in the sapwood are further 

 distinguished by groups of vessels. In this manner are formed a large 



^ Natural Hyatoria de las Indias, Toledo, medidna et morbo gallico liber unus, 4". (26 



1526. fol. xxx^^i. chapters) Moguntiae, 1519. 



- Decwra Morbi Galliciper LignumGvaya- ^ It is much used for the wheels (techni- 



canum libellus, printed in 1535 but dated cally " s^caws ") of ships' blocks (puUeys), 



19 Dec. 1517, 8 pages 8°. the circumference of which ought to consist 



3 De Morbo Gallico tradatus, Salisburgi, of the white sapwood. It is also required 



November 1518, — reprinted in the Aphro- for caulking mallets, skittle balls and for 



dltiactis of Luisinus, Lugd. Bat. 1728. 383. the large balls used in American bowling 



— We have only seen the latter. alleys, for which purposes it should be as 



* Ulrichi de Hutten equitis de Guaiaci sound and homogeneous as possible. 



